Dark Room Etiquette

De: Robin Roe

Narrado por: Andrew J. Andersen

We Were Liars meets Room in this masterfully plotted psychological thriller from the critically acclaimed author of A List of Cages, Robin Roe.

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAYERS WAYTE HAS EVERYTHING.

Popularity, good looks, perfect grades—there's nothing Sayers' family money can't buy.

Until he's kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he's been living is based on a lie.

Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he's been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.

But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape . . . before he loses himself.

©2022 Robin Roe (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book!

It's amazing how one single moment can forever change our lives, be it big or small. For Sayers, that one moment changed his life in a major way and redefined his entire being. This book really calls one to do some self reflection and reevaluate who you are vs. who you want to be. It also speaks to forgiveness and the genuineness or not of the relationships we have with others.

Excellent book

I’m not the biggest fan of YA and I keep saying I’m not going to read so much of it anymore. But here I am, and Dark Room Etiquette is my favorite book of 1922. I felt Sayers journey, from his arrogant and privileged beginnings to his humbling and tragic middle and his later struggles to overcome his trauma and be a better person.
Robin Roe understands people and masterfully brings their stories to life. She’s great at character building and storytelling. This was a rare book that I wanted more after the story ended.

Well written

I really enjoyed the ups and downs of this story. It took me a little bit to get into it, but after all the groundwork was laid, I couldn’t stop listening to find out what was going to happen next.

Couldn’t stop listening once I got to the second half 

Sayers’s character arc was so satisfying. The middle of the book while he was in captivity dragged a bit, but it was absolutely necessary for the story and his transformations. The repetitiveness was so effective. And I absolutely loved his unexpected friendship in the third act. I have a few quibbles: I really wanted to see more with Luke, and too many characters were just awful to him. The lack of support given to him strained my disbelief. But it really was a compelling book, and I stayed up way too late to finish it! 

Not just for YA listeners

I liked this book thru out the entire thing. But loved it when the actual author gave some back story about why and how he came to write the book. Then it just hit home. The entire book is about how each of us has to find our own way out of deep trauma and the damage it causes. And since I did suffer at the hands of a molester for most of my young teens into early adulthood, I had to learn my own way out of that darkness....

All the characters are well developed and I am pretty sure I have known every one of them in real life. The good, the bad and the ugly. And the sometimes ugly, but mostly good. And the sometimes good, but mostly bad. The ones who feel entitled, the ones who reach out to help others because they see the need.

I am so glad I gave this story a chance...

I love everything about this book

Sayers Wayte is an entitled and arrogant teenager whose money and status allows him live in a world without any real problems or worries. The first few chapters establish that, and were a perfect set up for what I knew was going to happen—his world was going to be turned upside down. Proving his entitlement and irritating attitude, he bails on and strands his friends at a restaurant they came upon while lost. Still lost in the middle of nowhere, he realizes he is very low on gas, and it’s getting dark outside. Along comes Caleb, a creepy man who approaches Sayers under the pretense that he is going to help him change his tire after he recklessly swerved off the road. Sayers accepts his offer to help him. Caleb seizes the opportunity, drugs Sayers and kidnaps him. He wakes up in a room with no windows and learns that Caleb believes that he is his own son Daniel, who disappeared when he was ten years old. He tries to reason with Caleb, then tries to fight him but it’s no use. He decides to play along and appear to become Daniel. Little by little, and with no concept of time, he begins to confuse reality with Caleb’s distortion. Watching him disappear is utterly heartbreaking.

The pace of his character development that I found the most remarkable. Such a journey from start to finish. I feel like there were three Sayers: the asshole in the beginning, Sayers being Daniel, and PTSD Sayers, who can’t go back to how he used to be.

Robin Roe has a masterful and artistic ability to paint the picture of what Sayer is thinking, seeing and experiencing. I think that’s what I loved the most from her first book, A List of Cages.

I definitely had all the feels throughout the book. A lot of anxiety, which I verbalized whenever I felt like he was going to get caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Also, just like in ALOC, there’s a moment so disturbing and devastating that I have to stop reading to process what I just read. And to cry.

I was able to relate with the state of “Learned Helplessness,” which I believe is the underlying message of the story, and how it can be overcome. And that there is HOPE.
Described in the book, Learned Helplessness is a state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly. They come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try — even when opportunities for change become available. Being bipolar, especially in a depressive episode, I have often felt this way, but have never heard of this perspective.

Ultimately, it is Robin Roe’s author’s note that affected me the most:

VULNERABLE BUT INVINCIBLE
It's how I'm trying to see myself. And it's my hope that anyone who is struggling might begin to see themselves this way too. This doesn't mean denying our history, ignoring our pain, or pretending there are no more bad days. On the contrary, for me, it means facing all those things. It means seeking out help when we need it, and trying new treatment methods even after we think we've tried them all. And it means reminding ourselves that no matter what's happened to us, we still have the capacity for so much joy--because there is always a way out of a dark room.

Almost DNF

This book started out very slowly, but I’m so happy I gave it a second try because it ended up being very interesting.
Each person in the book deals with some sort of trauma and the way they deal with it.

Excellent. Highly recommend.

Great read that made me stay up late and sneak in chapters every chance I could. With some similar themes to Room, this novel got to take full advantage of the author’s first person pov to explore to the fascinating and sometimes dissonant way our brains cope with trauma. Additionally, the author did an amazing job showing how these internal and sometimes conflicting motives can often be missed by those around us who see only the external cues we give. Must read.

So much more…

So much more than a great thriller. A wonderful story that dives deep into trauma and it’s effects.

Really good story

I enjoyed it. Well worth a listen despite being very different than my usual. Thanks.